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 KATHARINE

318

B.

JUDSON

Settlement must be considered as an

encroachment.

You

same time acquaint that Minister, that whilst your Govt could not but view with some surprise and regret the will at the

departure of the Ontario for the purpose of re-occupying the Port in question, without any previous concert with yourself,

and amicable transfer of this possession, that have nevertheless lost no time, as will appear by Court your the enclosed instructions, in taking such steps as depended on for the regular

them, in order to obviate any unpleasant

collision.

from your Despatch that Mr. Adams, in conversation, attempted to account for this on grounds of a former reference to Mr. Baker, but upon turning to the correspondence which then took place, it does not appear to this Govt that anything which then passed would justify the Govt of the U. States in taking such a step without at least some previous communication with you. "In adverting to this point with the American Secretary of State, which brings pointedly into view the unsettled nature of the pretensions of the two govts in the whole extent of their Frontier to the Westward, from the Lake of the Woods to the "It appears

Ocean, adverting also to the omission in the Treaty of Ghent of any provision for the demarcation of Limits beyond the point above referred to, it has appeared to the Prince Regent's Govt insistent with the friendly Spirit of our existing relations, to take measures for settling our Boundaries with the U. States throughout the whole of this line." and this was always It was easier, Lord Castlereagh stated, Pacific

the position taken by the British Government, right up to the Treaty of 1846 to settle the boundary before the country it was little known, because there were one fewer difficulties, way and another, with settlers. A new the was now motive treaty of America with Spain, giving the old the Americans Spanish rights, such as they were, and

was

settled

and while

Bagot was therefore ordered tion if he could.

The

easiest

way

to try to settle the

boundary ques-

to do this, Castlereagh thought,

was by a